Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/62

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34

PHILLIP FOUNDS SYDNEY.

extent and security very superior to any that I have ever seen." On the 24th he returned to Botany Bay, noticing at sea two French ships, which he rightly concluded to be the discovery ships Astrolabe and Boussole, under La Perouse. On the 25th he sailed in the Supply to Port Jackson, ordering the remainder of the ships to follow on the 26th. On the 26th also La Perouse anchored with the Astrolabe and Boussole in Botany Bay, being offered assistance and information by the English.^[1] On the same day Phillip displayed his colours on shore, assembled his officers "round the flagstaff, drank the king's health and success to the settlement, with all that display of form which on such occasions is deemed propitious," and founded the town of Sydney. Time and labour were required to effect the landing of the convicts, and the Governor was personally active in planning and in directing his subordinates.

On the 7th Feb., 1788, with due solemnity, he gathered his subjects on a space previously cleared. The military were drawn up under arms; the convicts were stationed apart. The Governor's officers surrounded him. The royal commission was read by the Judge-Advocate. The brief, but comprehensive, Act of Parliament already quoted was read aloud, with the letters patent empowering the proper persons to hold the courts sanctioned by the Act. "A triple discharge of musketry concluded this part of the ceremony, after which Governor Phillip advanced and thanked the private soldiers for their steady good conduct on every occasion," and then turned to his new subjects—the prisoners. He bade them recollect that already most

↑ "Lieutenant P. G. King was sent (1st Feb.) by Phillip to Botany Bay to interchange courtesies with La Perouse, who had already visited many islands of the Pacific, Norfolk Island, and New Zealand. He said to King, "Enfin Monsieur Cook a tant fait, qu'il ne m'a rien laissé a faire, que d'admirer ses œuvres." The captain of the Astrolabe, De Langle, had been killed with thirteen others, of whom eight were officers, at the Navigator Islands. English convicts had asked La Perouse to carry them away (before King conversed with him), but he dismissed them with threats, and gave them a day's provisions to return with. La Perouse sailed from Botany Bay on the 10th March. Before he left there was a "quarrel with the natives." Firearms were used. "This," the official record says, "joined to the ill behaviour of some of the convicts, has produced a shyness on their parts which it has not yet been possible to remove."

[1] "Lieutenant P. G. King was sent (1st Feb.) by Phillip to Botany Bay to interchange courtesies with La Perouse, who had already visited many islands of the Pacific, Norfolk Island, and New Zealand. He said to King, "Enfin Monsieur Cook a tant fait, qu'il ne m'a rien laissé a faire, que d'admirer ses œuvres." The captain of the Astrolabe, De Langle, had been killed with thirteen others, of whom eight were officers, at the Navigator Islands. English convicts had asked La Perouse to carry them away (before King conversed with him), but he dismissed them with threats, and gave them a day's provisions to return with. La Perouse sailed from Botany Bay on the 10th March. Before he left there was a "quarrel with the natives." Firearms were used. "This," the official record says, "joined to the ill behaviour of some of the convicts, has produced a shyness on their parts which it has not yet been possible to remove."

[1]